Which U.S. president signed the National Park Service Organic Act in 1916?

Woodrow Wilson signed the National Park Service Organic Act in 1916.

The act became law on August 25, 1916, establishing the National Park Service as an agency within the Department of the Interior. Its mission combined conservation with public enjoyment, requiring protected resources to remain unimpaired for future generations.

Theodore Roosevelt is a common mix-up because he created the national-monument system under the Antiquities Act and proclaimed Devils Tower the first national monument. William Howard Taft also proclaimed national monuments, but neither signed the NPS Organic Act.

Wilson’s signature formalized a nationwide administrative system rather than creating the first national park. Yellowstone had already been established in 1872, more than four decades earlier.